Just Try to Sleep Tight. The Bedbugs Are Back.

The New York Times ^ | November 27, 2005 | By ANDREW JACOBS

[aculeus]

They're the scourge of hobo encampments and hot-sheet motels. To impressionable children everywhere, they're a snippet of nursery rhyme, an abstract foe lurking beneath the covers that emerges when mommy shuts the door at night.

But bedbugs on Park Avenue? Ask the horrified matron who recently found her duplex teeming with the blood-sucking beasts. Or the tenants of a co-op on Riverside Drive who spent $200,000 earlier this month to purge their building of the pesky little thugs. The Helmsley Park Lane was sued two years ago by a welt-covered guest who blamed the hotel for harboring the critters. The suit was quietly settled last year.

And bedbugs, stealthy and fast-moving nocturnal creatures that were all but eradicated by DDT after World War II, have recently been found in hospital maternity wards, private schools and even a plastic surgeon's waiting room.

Bedbugs are back and spreading through New York City like a swarm of locusts on a lush field of wheat.

[aculeus]

"The psychological damage is probably the worst thing about it. I mean, how long will it be before I can sleep soundly and not worry about some creature sucking my blood?"

[Mercat]

there are mites on your face right now, eating the dead skin... that is they are there if you have a reasonably clear complextion. The latest I've heard are about mites who live in leaf litter and cause horrible itching. Fortunately for me, Mr. Mercat won't let me go near raking leaves because of my allergies.

[Cougar66]

Thank the tree hugging environmentalists who didn't want chemicals sprayed in the cracks and crevices of buildings, hotels, motels, schools etc

[IndyInVa]

Sounds like the lice infestations that occur every so often. The schools - or whoever - try to tell you that it can happen to anyone. That's true only insofar as "anyone" can get them from someone dirty.

[goldstategop]

Liberals banned DDT... so if they can't sleep tight - well you know the lengths to which people must go for the environment. Especially if it means having bedbugs for company, well that's the price to be paid for progress.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[ErnBatavia]

I read someplace that some hotel chains had their bedspreads tested and examined for microscopic stuff, "DNA" etc....pretty disgusting!

(and the testing wasn't anything the hotels requested, needless to say)

[Cicero]

"My life has become all about bedbugs," she said as an exterminator arrived last week.

Where was this article? In the NYT Style Section? Clearly bedbugs are the latest fashion rage.

[Willie Green]

[Eagles Talon IV]

AWWWWWW!

[litehaus]

It's FRANCE! Cousin's kid returned from Paris and had to throw out clothing and much upon return besides having apt. "sprayed."

[Centurion2000]

, how long will it be before I can sleep soundly and not worry about some creature sucking my blood?"

Lock your doors and kill all the lawyers in your neighhborhood. Then you're safe.

[go-dubya-04]

"Still, for Ms. Scanlan, there has been a silver lining. The night after she discovered the bugs, she went out drinking, intent on avoiding her own bed. That evening she met a man at a bar, and, contrary to her usual instincts, accompanied him to his apartment. An encounter partly born of desperation soon blossomed into something more, she said.

"We've been together ever since," Ms. Scanlan said with a smile. "Thanks to the bedbugs, I've fallen in love."

Could anyone be more pathetic than this "lady"? Yeah, I've got bedbugs, so I need to go out and f@#& some guy so I can sleep at his apt instead! Lovely

[Cheburashka]

"The psychological damage is probably the worst thing about it. I mean, how long will it be before I can sleep soundly and not worry about some creature sucking my blood?"
---
Stop watching Buffy reruns.

[Smogger]

"Rats, even V.D., is more socially acceptable than bedbugs."

LOL!

bastards...

[Syberyenta]

she's gonna catch worse than bedbugs. LOL

[Grammy]

I have a friend who travels about 40 weeks a year who stayed at a fairly decent motel in Fla. He woke up covered from neck to toes with welts! NOT a happy camper.

[steveo]

[go-dubya-04]

Dead straight

[manwiththehands]

Still, for Ms. Scanlan, there has been a silver lining. The night after she discovered the bugs, she went out drinking, intent on avoiding her own bed. That evening she met a man at a bar, and, contrary to her usual instincts, accompanied him to his apartment. An encounter partly born of desperation soon blossomed into something more, she said ... "We've been together ever since," Ms. Scanlan said with a smile. "Thanks to the bedbugs, I've fallen in love."

Now there's a line I've never tried. "Hey, baby. I've got bedbugs. Can I sleep with you at your place?"

[joshhiggins]

Dorlands medical dictionary

"bedbug (bed·bug) (bed´bug)

1. any bug of the genus Cimex.

2. any of various other biting insects that infest human bedding.

Mexican b. any of various biting reduviid bugs of the genus Triatoma found in the southern United States and Mexico."